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And yet dozens of musicians of all ages and experience are lining up — many of them for a second, third, fourth or fifth time — to perform compositions of Bach and his sons during the fifth annual Bach Marathon on Saturday. The daylong relay of performances, which starts at 9 a.m. at Our Savior Lutheran Church on Summer Street in Hanover, is free to all comers. The grand finale, a “flash-mob” orchestra, starts around 6 p.m.
Chiho Kaneko can’t wait to go another round with the baroque master’s exacting, exalting compositions on Saturday — in her case, singing Cantata #51 in the original German.
“The volume of his work is impressive alone,” Kaneko, a Hartland-based visual artist by vocation and a soprano by voice who sang from Bach’s Mass in B Minor in 2016 and from the St. John Passion last spring. “The variation, the creativity and the spirit are incredible.”
Bach’s qualities make it an easy call for soprano Camilla Tassi to take time, for the second March in a row, from her master’s-degree studies in digital musics, and from various multimedia projects of her own. On Saturday she plans to sing several Bach arias and preludes, as a follow-up to the Domine Deus duet she sang last March from the Mass in B Minor.
“I had such a fun time that I ended up staying at the marathon for hours, just seeing performers of all levels and ages,” Tassi said Tuesday of her 2017 experience. “I thought it was such a beautiful initiative that really brought together the community. And as a student, it is nice to be away from the bubble of campus.”
Thetford resident Chandler Harris enjoyed playing in last year’s marathon enough to return with a chamber group, which he calls The Kentucky Warblers to play selections from Six Sonatas by Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel.
“Bach’s lighter, creative side reveals itself to me whenever I encounter him through playing or listening to music,” Harris, whose day job is delivering for Roberts Flowers of Hanover, wrote during an exchange of emails this week. “The marathon rules allow performers to select pieces composed by Bach offspring as well as by Bach, and this trio sounded like it would befit the musical genre being honored. … Bach is ever-present in our musical lives, and deserves the credit.”
Windsor resident James Haaf, who plays French horn for an ensemble led by marathon co-organizer Mark Nelson, is playing his first-ever Bach Marathon on an alto recorder, taking a solo run at the senior Bach’s Partita in A Minor, Sarabande and Bourree Anglaise.
“Bach’s music can be difficult, both for the listener and the performer,” Haaf wrote in an email. “It doesn’t appeal to everyone who gravitates to baroque music as does, say, the music of Handel or Vivaldi. Bach is more intense, deeper. He’s like a warm crème brulee instead of vanilla ice cream.”
Kaneko, who first practiced Bach’s work on piano while growing up in Japan, savored those complex flavors even more after taking up singing several years ago, starting with the Bel Canto ensemble.
“It comes very natural to me,” Kaneko said. “He treats the voice like another instrument. The language of the music is very familiar to me — the structure, the logic and the spirit. That’s why people get excited about his music.
“Even more than 300 years later, it still speaks to us.”
Our Savior Lutheran Church in Hanover hosts the annual Bach Marathon on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m. Players and singers are welcome to perform solo or in ensembles, and the celebration will conclude with a flash-mob orchestra that starts around 6 p.m. Admission for spectators and for performers is free. To select a time slot to play or sing, email Margaret Gilmore at mouxgie@gmail.com or Mark Nelson at markdnelson1@gmail.com.
Best Bets
The Cameo Baroque ensemble of recorder player Beth Hilgartner, violist Laurie Rabut, harpsichordist Ernie Drown and traverso player Leslie Stroud tackles works of Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Joachim Quantz, Jean-Baptiste Quentin and Jacques-Christophe Naudot at two Upper Valley locations this weekend.
Admission to both recitals are by donation. Friday night’s show at 7 in Bethel’s Christ Episcopal Church benefits Capstone Community Action’s Family Literacy Center. The Sunday afternoon concert at 2 p.m. in Hanover’s Church of Christ at Dartmouth supports Listen Community Services.
The central New Hampshire-based Nick’s Other Band serenades the annual Mud Ball dance with classic rock on Saturday night at the Newberry Market in White River Junction, during the annual benefit for the Upper Valley Haven’s programs for homeless children. The festivities, including refreshments, run from 6:30 to 11. For tickets ($85 per person) and information about additional contributions through sponsorshps, visit uppervalleyhaven.org/events or the Haven’s Facebook page.
The Chandler Music Hall in Randolph hosts its 11th annual Mini Mud talent show, for central-Vermont singers, dancers and actors ages 8 to 18, on Saturday night at 7. To reserve tickets ($6 to $16) and learn more, call 802-728-6464 or visit www.chandler-arts.org.
The folk-rock duo Aztec Two-Step lands at the Flying Goose Brew Pub and Grille next Thursday night. For tickets ($25) and more information, visit flyinggoose.com or call 603-526-6899.
Looking Ahead
The 1776 Project will kick off its three-weekend revival of the Broadway musical 1776 on March 30 at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. The production, part of an effort to engage Upper Valley residents in a conversation about democracy, runs through April 14. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit the1776project.org.
South African choreographer Dada Masilo will stage and dance in her reimagining of the 19th-century French ballet Giselle on March 30 and 31 in Dartmouth College’s Moore Theater. To reserve tickets ($25 to $50) and learn more, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Theater/Performance Art
Northern Stage’s Youth Ensemble Studio performs the musical adaptation of Judith Byron Schachner’s children’s book Yo, Vikings five times over the coming weekend at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. For tickets ($15 to $20) and more information, visit northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.
Friday is the deadline for singers ages 7 to 18 to sign up for auditions on Sunday for the Chandler Music Hall’s youth summer production of White Christmas!. To sign up and learn more, visit chandler-arts.org/youth or call 802-728-9878/ext. 3, or email outreach@chandler-arts.org. The musical, an adaptation of the 1940s movie Holiday Inn that featured music of Irving Berlin, will be staged at the Chandler between July 5 and 8.
Jeanne Beckwith directs a staged reading of central Vermont playwright Margot Lasher’s I Belong Somewhere, at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph on Sunday night at 7. The drama, about a group of people and animals left homeless by war, is the second in the Chandler’s Issues Play series. Admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door for adults, and $5 for students. To reserve tickets and learn more, visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Music
Revels North celebrates the arrival of spring with performances Friday night at the Newberry Market in White River Junction and Saturday night at Whipple Hall in New London. Both shows start at 7. Admission to the Newberry show is by donation, and tickets to the New London performance cost $6 to $12 in advance (available at centerfortheartsnh.org and at downtown New London’s Morgan Hill Bookstore and Tatewell Gallery) and $7 to $14 at the door.
Bassist Peter Concilio plays jazz with pianist Sonny Saul and drummer Tim Gilmore at Saul’s Pleasant Street Books in Woodstock on Friday night at 7.
Boston-based singer-pianist Amanda Carr performs the next Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon concert at 4, in the Center at Eastman in Grantham. For tickets ($18-$20) and more information, visit josajazz.com or call 603-763-8732.
Ensembles from around the Northeast Kingdom fill the Bradford, Vt., Congregational Church with songs of the Easter season during the church’s annual Palm Sunday Choir Festival on Sunday night at 7. To learn more, visit bradforducc.org.
Dance
Fiddler Alden Robinson and guitarist Dan Faiella set the rhythm and Don Stratton calls the steps for Muskeg Music’s next contradance, on Saturday night at 8 at Barrett Hall in South Strafford. Admission is $6 to $10.
Fiddler Thal Aylward joins Bob Merrill’s Tango Norte quintet at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret on Sunday afternoon, to provide the soundtrack to ArtisTree’s next session of milongas social dance. Before the dance ($15 admission), which runs from 4 to 7, ArtisTree provides a dance lesson at 3, for a fee of $10. Dancers taking the lesson and staying for the main event pay $22. To learn more, visit artistreevt.org.
Bar and Club Circuit
The Americana band Still Hill pulls into Windsor Station tonight at 7. DJ Nate Jarvis tees up the music for a dance party at the venue on Friday night at 9:30, Turner Round rocks the station on Saturday night at 9:30 and singer-songwriter Erik Boedtker appears on Tuesday night at 6.
Randy Miller hosts the weekly live session of traditional Irish music at Salt hill Pub in Hanover tonight starting at 6. Saxophonist Mike Parker and singer Nikki Adams perform Friday night at 9, and the folk-rock duo of Mark and Deb Bond appears on Saturday night at 9.
The folk trio Never Too Late plays Salt hill Pub in downtown Lebanon on Friday night at 9. Hammond organist Tom Caselli leads his B3 Brotherhood on Saturday night at 9 for a set of funk and soul, and on Tuesday night from 6 to 9, fiddler Roger Burridge and piper Anthony Santoro share their weekly session of traditional Irish music.
Arthur James sings and plays the blues at Salt hill Pub in Newport on Friday night at 9, and Tirade plays a set of rock on Saturday night at 9. Roger Kahle joins Randy Miller on Wednesday night at 6, for their weekly live session of traditional Irish music.
Central New Hampshire’s Bradford Bog People perform roots music at the Sunapee Community CoffeeHouse on Friday night at 7, at the Methodist Church in Sunapee. Admission is by donation.
Americana singer-guitarist Steve Cornell performs at The Skinny Pancake in Hanover on Friday night starting at 7:30, and Navytrain co-founder Cole Davidson leads his eponymous alt-folk band on Saturday night at 8.
Pianist Sonny Saul performs jazz at the On the River Inn in Woodstock on Saturday and Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9.
The central Vermont rock bands Stone Bullet and Wendigo play The Dusty Bottle in downtown Bradford, Vt., on Saturday night starting at 9. Open to ages 21 and older, at a cover charge of $5.
Saxophonist Mike Parker and singer-guitarist Alison “AliT” Turner perform at Carpenter & Main in Norwich on Wednesday night at 7.
Open Mics
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 on Thursday nights. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads his weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass on Monday night at 6 at Salt hill Pub in Hanover.
Jim Yeager hosts several open mics over the coming week: at Bentley’s Restaurant in Woodstock on Monday night at 7:30; at the Public House in Quechee on Tuesday night at 6; on Wednesday from 8 to midnight at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners; and next Thursday night at 7 at the ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret.
Fiddler Jakob Breitbach leads a weekly acoustic jam session of bluegrass, Americana and old-timey music on Tuesday nights at 7 at The Filling Station Bar and Grill in White River Junction.
Tom Masterson hosts an open mic at Bradford, Vt.’s Colatina Exit on Tuesday nights at 8.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.